The word “infrastructure” can often strike a chord of anxiety in any city official’s mind. Tight budget constraints and aging roads and sidewalks make formulating plans for the future difficult.

A recent annexation by the city has stirred concern among some local residents who believe infrastructure is more important than acquiring more space. They would like to see the city’s money spent repairing roads and existing sidewalks and the creation of new sidewalks in residential areas.

Mayor Ken Purdy recognizes the concern, and is working to make infrastructure modifications within current budget constraints.

“The city certainly recognizes the need for sidewalk improvements and enhanced pedestrian access in many parts of the community,” said Purdy. “Every significant street project improvement involves looking at ways to improve our system of sidewalks. Important progress has been made in many areas, and a special focus has been placed on the needs of our community’s schools.”

Purdy said over the last few years, new sidewalks and refurbishment of existing walkways have been made in near Sequoyah and Cherokee Elementary Schools, as well as near the middle school and high school.

Some improvements being made aren’t always visible to the average resident, but Purdy and Street Commissioner Mike Corn both agree are imperative to the long-term stability of the city’s infrastructure.

“Although not as visible as the final sidewalk or street surface, nearly all of these projects involve undertaking other needed improvements to our underground drainage and utility systems,” said Purdy. “Pedestrian access to walking trails and sidewalk design concerns that focus on accessibility by persons with physical disabilities are also an important part of our ongoing improvement projects.”

Throughout the course of this series, residents have indicated they would like to see more sidewalks in residential areas. Purdy indicated the concerns have not fallen on deaf ears.

“To better understand why certain areas within the city, especially our older residential areas, do not have more sidewalks, it’s important to recognize that many such areas were developed under a set of city development standards that, until fairly recently, had changed little since the middle of the last century, and that did not emphasize sidewalk construction. A comprehensive update to those standards was made in 2000, and increased emphasis on sidewalks for new development was incorporated.”

Former Mayor Jerry Cook, now director of Community Affairs at Northeastern State University, believes sidewalks are an important part of any community, but also indicated efforts should be made by a variety of sources to aid the city.

“During my terms as mayor, I felt like the sidewalk projects were a powerful statement of what standards the citizens and the entire community expected in projecting a positive image,” said Cook. “The image I envisioned was for the city-wide project to begin downtown. We had old sidewalks, dangerous cracks and intersections that were definitely not [Americans with Disabilities Act] compliant. [We had] huge curb heights that were dangerous and totally destructive to some people in the daily routine of shopping and navigating our downtown core area.”

Cook became acutely aware of the sidewalk deficiencies after he had surgery that created some mobility issues. He said he had difficulty navigating trips to the bank or parking his car and shopping downtown.

“[In trying to do these small errands] I knew for the first time how challenging just basic mobility issues can be for a large number of citizens,” said Cook.

The second component of Cook’s plan was improving the aesthetics of the downtown area, as well as city neighborhoods.

“I don’t think anyone can deny the visual improvement in our downtown area following the renovations to our sidewalks and installation of vintage street lights,” he said. “It changed the whole level of appeal to being downtown. Even today, Street Commissioner Mike Corn continues to install ADA-compliant intersection improvements, underground storm drainage improvements, and other visual and safety improvements to something we launched almost nine years ago.”